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Good evening. Today I'd like to show you how to play The Binding of Isaac Afterbirth on Wii U.
This requires you have hacked your Wii U, obviously. If you haven't done that, I recommend visiting http://wiiu.hacks.guide/.
Because using custom DLC like this requires CFW/Sigpatches, Haxchi or Coldboot Haxchi is highly recommended.

The Binding of Isaac Rebirth got DLC in 2015 on PC called "Afterbirth" that was a large expansion to the base game, including many new items, synergies, new alt stages, and new music in some cases.

This DLC later came to the PS4 and Xbox One in May of the following year, prior to this point Tyrone Rodriguez, the CEO of Nicalis, Inc had made several statements on Twitter stating "Stop lying to yourself, the Wii U is not much more powerful than a PS Vita." which made some news headlines at the time, and a lot of angry Nintendo fans as well. Months later, Tyrone posted this tweet, showing him at the top of a Daily Run (which was a new afterbirth feature) on the Wii U, and then, in March it was confirmed for release sometime "in the coming months." I have news for you, Tyrone. It's been a lot longer than a few months and it's still never released. It was later on confirmed that Afterbirth+, the next expansion, wasn't coming to Wii U but was instead confirmed to be coming to Switch.

So here we are then, Afterbirth was apparently up and running on Wii U and was planned to release, but it just never came to be.Or did it? Well, sort of. The final update, 1.06 of Rebirth on Wii U, in the USA version only is a file named "isaac-ngWiiUAB.rpl".

Based on the name, you can see this is an RPL (Wii U Executable) for "AB" or Afterbirth. While the game executable is here, the contents, of course, are not. But are we really missing them? Isaac uses pretty standard open formats for it's game data, even on consoles. And we have the afterbirth content for the PC version of the game...

Someone, specifically @Dr.Aardvark, decided to go ahead and try and recreate the data it wants using the PC version files as a base, and apparently, he achieved success. He even posted about it late last year, but the thread didn't get much traction, and honestly, as a guide, it's a bit lacking. I actually followed it nearly exactly but still had a bit of trouble getting it to work myself, but eventually I sorted it out.

As he mentioned in his thread, the only caveat is that the Daily Runs do not function, as- of course, this platform does not have the required servers to support them, instead, returning an error when you make an attempt to connect. It is still unknown if there are any major issues with playing Afterbirth this way, but as far as I can tell, everything that should work does work.

This is a simple windows based batch script that uses various open source tools to build a working DLC installable WUP package that enables Afterbirth out of the PC version's afterbirth.a file.

In order to use this script, you will need:

The Binding of Isaac Rebirth on PC/Steam

The Binding of Isaac Afterbirth DLC on PC/Steam

The Wii U Common Key (Google It!)

A working Java runtime installed

The short instruction manual is:
- Copy afterbirth.a from the PC version of Isaac Afterbirth into the same folder as the script.
- Make a text file with the exact name "encryptKeyWith" containing the Wii U Common Key.
- Run Build.bat and wait a while. If you get an error you probably did something wrong.

A more detailed set of instructions for the less technically inclined are included in the zip file's readme document, so feel free to check on that too if you want.

If all goes well, it will output a folder named "The Binding of Isaac Afterbirth [0005000C101A3C00]" which you can copy to your Wii U's SD card in the install folder, and install it under CFW/Sigpatches with WUP Installer GX2.

You will also need The Binding of Isaac Rebirth (USA) installed on your Wii U to make use of this DLC.

Please let me know here if you encounter any issues with the script or if you are unable to get the DLC to work in some way.
Enjoy, everyone.

F.A.Q.
Q: Afterbirth+ or Antibirth?
A: No. The only reason Afterbirth is possible is that Nicalis spent the time, money, and effort porting Afterbirth to Wii U themselves, as evidenced in above paragraphs. To make Afterbirth+ or Antibirth work on Wii U would require far more work and effort.

Q: Can you upload to <insert warez site here>?
A: No, but I'm sure someone else has or will.

Q: Can this same tactic be used to enable Afterbirth on n3DS or Vita?
A: No. Those only contain executables for Rebirth, not Afterbirth. This only works because Nicalis ported Afterbirth to Wii U themselves already- they just never released it for some reason.

Q: Why not the EUR version?
A: Majorly, the EUR version doesn't contain the "isaac-ngWiiUAB.rpl" file which is the whole reason this process is possible for the USA version, but it's worth noting that you don't want to be running the EUR version at all, as it is actually out of date by a whole update, compared to the USA release. It seems that while porting Afterbirth to Wii U they made a ton of performance optimizations that are not present in the last EUR release, that make both Rebirth and Afterbirth performance much more reasonably on the console.

AWESOME. i posted a thread like half a year ago asking for this same thing,
can u post a compiled package on that iso site for the laziest of us?
also can you test if this solution is workable with Afterbirth+ or Antibirth since they use the same executable as Afterbirth on pc?

AWESOME. I posted a thread like half a year ago asking for this same thing,
can u post a compiled package on that iso site for the laziest of us?
also can you test if this solution is workable with Afterbirth+ or Antibirth since they use the same executable as Afterbirth on pc?

Click to expand...

I will not be posting any pre-compiled packages, however, someone has already posted one on that "dark" site quite a while back.
This thread is for those that would like to do this as legally as possible.

And about Afterbirth+ and Antibirth. Unfortunately, that is actually incorrect.
Afterbirth uses an entirely different executable from Afterbirth+, they all just share the same filename.
The same is true of Antibirth as well.

In order to port them, someone would need to disassemble the RPL of the game and make the same changes again to the compiled Wii U version, which is unlikely to happen, sorry.

No, the only reason this is possible is because Nicalis ported Afterbirth to Wii U and then scrapped it at the last second, late enough that the executable for Afterbirth was already present in the released game.

I get unable to open blob on latest Afterbirth+ (steam) but folder is generated. Is this okay?

Click to expand...

As long as you copied the "afterbirth.a" file from the PC version and made the encryptKeyWith file with the WiiU Common Key in it (I can't give this to you, google it)
It should generate a working WUP. The blob errors are normal because some folders it checks don't actually have any png images in them to convert.

Didn't work for me. Said to verify files are correct and complete when I try to install. I don't know if I did anything wrong... how could I? Instructions are simple.

Edit: Nevermind... its working now. Forgot that I had to launch Mocha and go back into Homebrew to install it with WUP Installer GX2. I'll play it later though and let you know if I run into any problems

I doubt it, but I'm also not about to try either, so if you want to, be my guest. After running the script there's a folder called "dlcpackage" left over.
This is a decrypted, copy of the raw data contained in the DLC, so you can always add your own files to that and manually compile the WUP again yourself using NUS-Packer.

Good evening. Today I'd like to show you how to play The Binding of Isaac Afterbirth on Wii U.
This requires you have hacked your Wii U, obviously. If you haven't done that, I recommend visiting http://wiiu.hacks.guide/.
Because using custom DLC like this requires CFW/Sigpatches, Haxchi or Coldboot Haxchi is highly recommended.

The Binding of Isaac Rebirth got DLC in 2015 on PC called "Afterbirth" that was a large expansion to the base game, including many new items, synergies, new alt stages, and new music in some cases.

This DLC later came to the PS4 and Xbox One in May of the following year, prior to this point Tyrone Rodriguez, the CEO of Nicalis, Inc had made several statements on Twitter stating "Stop lying to yourself, the Wii U is not much more powerful than a PS Vita." which made some news headlines at the time, and a lot of angry Nintendo fans as well. Months later, Tyrone posted this tweet, showing him at the top of a Daily Run (which was a new afterbirth feature) on the Wii U, and then, in March it was confirmed for release sometime "in the coming months." I have news for you, Tyrone. It's been a lot longer than a few months and it's still never released. It was later on confirmed that Afterbirth+, the next expansion, wasn't coming to Wii U but was instead confirmed to be coming to Switch.

So here we are then, Afterbirth was apparently up and running on Wii U and was planned to release, but it just never came to be.Or did it? Well, sort of. The final update, 1.06 of Rebirth on Wii U, in the USA version only is a file named "isaac-ngWiiUAB.rpl".

Based on the name, you can see this is an RPL (Wii U Executable) for "AB" or Afterbirth. While the game executable is here, the contents, of course, are not. But are we really missing them? Isaac uses pretty standard open formats for it's game data, even on consoles. And we have the afterbirth content for the PC version of the game...

Someone, specifically @Dr.Aardvark, decided to go ahead and try and recreate the data it wants using the PC version files as a base, and apparently, he achieved success. He even posted about it late last year, but the thread didn't get much traction, and honestly, as a guide, it's a bit lacking. I actually followed it nearly exactly but still had a bit of trouble getting it to work myself, but eventually I sorted it out.

As he mentioned in his thread, the only caveat is that the Daily Runs do not function, as- of course, this platform does not have the required servers to support them, instead, returning an error when you make an attempt to connect. It is still unknown if there are any major issues with playing Afterbirth this way, but as far as I can tell, everything that should work does work.

This is a simple windows based batch script that uses various open source tools to build a working DLC installable WUP package that enables Afterbirth out of the PC version's afterbirth.a file.

In order to use this script, you will need:

The Binding of Isaac Rebirth on PC/Steam

The Binding of Isaac Afterbirth DLC on PC/Steam

The Wii U Common Key (Google It!)

A working Java runtime installed

The short instruction manual is:
- Copy afterbirth.a from the PC version of Isaac Afterbirth into the same folder as the script.
- Make a text file with the exact name "encryptKeyWith" containing the Wii U Common Key.
- Run Build.bat and wait a while. (Ignore any UnableToOpenBlob errors about PNGs, these are normal.)

A more detailed set of instructions for the less technically inclined are included in the zip file's readme document, so feel free to check on that too if you want.

If all goes well, it will output a folder named "The Binding of Isaac Afterbirth [0005000C101A3C00]" which you can copy to your Wii U's SD card in the install folder, and install it under CFW/Sigpatches with WUP Installer GX2.

You will also need The Binding of Isaac Rebirth (USA) installed on your Wii U to make use of this DLC.

Please let me know here if you encounter any issues with the script or if you are unable to get the DLC to work in some way.
Enjoy, everyone.

F.A.Q.
Q: Afterbirth+ or Antibirth?
A: No. The only reason Afterbirth is possible is that Nicalis spent the time, money, and effort porting Afterbirth to Wii U themselves, as evidenced in above paragraphs. To make Afterbirth+ or Antibirth work on Wii U would require far more work and effort.

Q: Can you upload to <insert warez site here>?
A: No, but I'm sure someone else has or will.

Q: Can this same tactic be used to enable Afterbirth on n3DS or Vita?
A: No. Those only contain executables for Rebirth, not Afterbirth. This only works because Nicalis ported Afterbirth to Wii U themselves already- they just never released it for some reason.

Q: Why not the EUR version?
A: Majorly, the EUR version doesn't contain the "isaac-ngWiiUAB.rpl" file which is the whole reason this process is possible for the USA version, but it's worth noting that you don't want to be running the EUR version at all, as it is actually out of date by a whole update, compared to the USA release. It seems that while porting Afterbirth to Wii U they made a ton of performance optimizations that are not present in the last EUR release, that make both Rebirth and Afterbirth performance much more reasonably on the console.

Click to expand...

Would I be allowed to implement this into my mod converter? I might also be able to get this working with Antibirth and other consoles

Would I be allowed to implement this into my mod converter? I might also be able to get this working with Antibirth and other consoles

Click to expand...

To my knowledge, Antibirth porting would require heavy changes to the game executable, which, while possible on Wii U, would be extremely difficult and largely a lot like redoing the entire mod from scratch. But sure, do whatever you want with the files or batch script or whatever, good luck.

Whatever you do, just make sure you don't include the common key or a complete copy of the afterbirth.a content files.

made a small update to the batch script to fix those blob errors and add md5 verification on the afterbirth.a and encryptKeyWith files.
Now you have to get it right or the batch file halts.

This is entirely unrelated to the actual game/dlc itself, it's purely just making the script a bit better, so don't worry about generating a new one or anything.
If you did it right before and it worked, you're done forever.

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